Recipes, Yes. Zucchini’s, No.

Aug 022012
 

*Disclaimer:  This is NOT turning into a food blog, it just so happens that it is harvest time in the Northwoods so I can’t help myself.*

:::

When Rick & I went to the farm on Sunday to check on the Popcorn and Sunflowers (both doing fab, BTW), the young man that was working for the CSA asked us if we wanted a couple of zucchini’s.

Rick looked to me for the answer.  After 21 years of marriage, I had never made the man zucchini.  Don’t ask me why, but the veggie just never presented itself to me.  And, to my surprise, Rick has never had zucchini before.  In. His. Life.  GASP !

Myself, growing up in the country with a HUGE garden, naturally this veggie crept it’s way into the crop.  So not wanting to scare the hubby away with this lovely food, I immediately thought of the one recipe that Mom made with it:  Zucchini Bars.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have her recipe.  Big bummer.  So I turned to the interwebs in search of one that came close to the “taste” of hers. Then I had to find another recipe for the piece de resistance:  Cream Cheese Frosting.  You simply can not have Zucchini Bars without Cream Cheese Frosting.  Mom made the best, but alas, I didn’t have that recipe either.

Damnit!!

After much searching, I found what I wanted.  The batter for the bars looked more like bread dough when I finished mixing it, but puffed up nice and moist in the oven.  The frosting was a little on the thin side, but the flavor was… good.  Not like Mama used to make, but delightful none-the-less.

And Rick’s reaction?

If I don’t take some of it to work, I’m afraid he’s going to eat the whole pan.

:::

PS.  What is your favorite food to make with Zucchini?

PPS.  Do you have a go-to Cream Cheese Frosting that you can share?  Pretty please??

PPPS.  Please do not drop off your overabundance of Zucchini on my deck.  But I will take tomatoes.  LOTS of tomatoes.

 

Berry, Berry Happy

Aug 012012
 

It’s berry picking season in the Northwoods.

This year Rick & I discovered a ton of wild Blackberry bushes growing all around the homestead, and we’re going to take full advantage of it (until the bears discover it, of course).

So if you guessed Blackberry Jam in my last post, you win a cookie!

I have never, in all my years of canning, made jams or jellies.  Don’t ask me why, but I’ve never really had the hankering to try something “new” like that.  I figured it would be all hard with hours of prep work, sweating over the stove (blah, blah, whine, snivel), but actually it was quite simple.  I only needed 2 things:  berries and sugar (OK, more than 2 things if you count the jars, lids, and canner, but I already had those things so they don’t count), and I had plenty of both.

On Sunday Rick set out to see what the ripening level of the biggest patch was, and in no time flat we had enough berries for a batch of jam.  Just to be on the safe side, I did one more go-through on Monday and added another full tin to the party.

A quick internet search for the perfect recipe (perfect = easy) that didn’t require Pectin.  Why didn’t I want Pectin?  Because a) I didn’t have any; b) I didn’t want to buy any; and c) I wanted this to be all organic.

My party, my rules.

The recipe?  50-50 fruit and sugar.  Boil to 220 degrees, skim the foam, fill the jars and hot water bath process for 10 minutes.

Out of 3-1/2 cups of mashed berries, I got six 1/2 pints of jam.

Color me ecstatic.

And the way that the berries are ripening, I’m going to be making quite a bit of jam in the next 2 weeks.

And that makes me berry, berry happy.

 

Garlicky Love

Jul 302012
 

It feels like I have been canning all summer.

Oh wait… I have.  Due to the early Spring (I AM a broken record) that stayed around until the actual Spring and quickly turned into summer, the plants in the garden that are doing fabulous (cucumbers) are keeping me on my toes, and I’ve been making dill pickles since late June.

*Quickie update on the 30 tomato plants:  Blight .  Big time.  As of today, I have 16 tomatoes struggling to mature.  I am one sad gardener.  BUT, as all good gardeners do when they are having an off season, we shake off the losses and plan on what we will do better for the next year (I’m a Viking’s fan, so I have lots of practice in disappointment).  For me, that is fertilizer.  Organic, of course.*

Anywho, there are many other things to can up this time of year, and today I did 2 different things that I’ve never done before.

The first is garlic.  A customer of Rick’s thanked him for all the hard work he put into working on her computer by giving him a ginormous bag of garlic that she grew.  When I saw it the first things I thought was “WTF am I gonna do with 2 million heads of garlic?!?”  I mean, I love the stuff, but I couldn’t possibly use it all before it would start to spoil.  So I mentioned this conundrum to Nichole and she suggested canning it.

*Insert head slap here.*

So I did the research, and sure enough if you do it right, it can be done.

I spent a glorious afternoon on the deck peeling 368 bazillion garlic bulbs.  By the time I was done, my fingers were on fire.  It felt like I had burned through the outer layers of my skin and exposed every nerve ending there was.

But was was worth it.  DUHHH!!!

Isn’t that a glorious group of garlic?  (Say that 3 times fast!)

Following the brief guidelines from the National Onion Association and Rural Revolution, I crushed, boiled and pressured cooked those suckers into wonderful gifts of garlicky love.

These little jars are going to get me through the whole winter, by golly, with a few heading down to Nichole for her wonderful suggestion and of course Christine because she’s got garlic in her veins too.

Now the whole house reeks of garlic.  I really wish someone would come up with a smelling app for times like this.

*sniff*… Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Since this has run kinda long, I’ll regale you with the second thing in my next post.

Here’s a hint:  it’s wild.

Any guesses??

 

Looks Can be Deceiving

Jul 112012
 

We’ve got a cute little chipmunk that has been living under some boards that Rick has next to the garage.

I’ve seen him scamper around the yard looking for things to munch on, and he didn’t seem to be a big threat to anything (unlike the squirrels).

I was out in my garden checking the second crop of peas I’d planted for the season, because for some reason only 1/2 of them came up on the first planting.  I blamed it on the rain/heat/alien invasion and decided to give it another shot.

As I’m stooping down to look at the little shoots that are coming out of the ground, the chipmunk comes up to within 4 feet of me and starts sniffing around the plants.

I’m talking to the little fella (don’t judge), telling him how cute he is and asking what he’s planning for his summer vacation when all of a sudden he digs in the dirt and grabs one of my pea seeds and EATS IT!!!

Right there in front of me!  I was shocked, to see the least, but that wasn’t the end of it.  He scampers off after I yell at him, and as soon as I turn my back, he’s right back in the garden!

This dude either a) isn’t right in the head or b) has a death wish.  As I’m telling him that this is MY garden and those are MY seeds and to go play in traffic, he just looks at me with those big black eyes as to say “OK, crazy garden lady, I’m sorry.  I won’t do it any more.  You can trust me.”

Thinking we have a truce, I continue about in the garden.  When I glance back over to the pea patch, he’s at it again!  OK, this means war!  I’ve tried reason, I’ve tried friendship, but it ain’t workin’.

Off to the garage I go and grab the Liquid Fence (I don’t want to hurt the little bugger, just get him away from MY stuff).  I know this spray doesn’t work on squirrels (of course I tried) but I had to do something.

I approach the garden and the little shyster is right back in there digging through the dirt looking for booty.  I take aim and FIRE!  Dead hit and he takes off running.

Bwahahahaha!!

I douse my plants with the stuff and head back into the house with my little harvest of cucumbers and meager peas that my plants held.

After about a 1/2 hour I decided to venture back to the garden and see if the little buttmunch had returned.

Yes, yes he had.  Apparently the spray doesn’t work on chipmunks either.  I have a feeling I’ve just lost my second planting of peas, because in the spot where each of the seedlings were coming up, there is now a shallow, empty hole.

Guess I just figured out what happened to my first crop of peas.

 

I Ain’t Got Nothin’

Jun 272012
 

Nothing really new to tell from the Northwoods.

Unless you want me to go on and on about my gardens (which I don’t think you would).

…

…

…

Well, since you insist, they are doing quite well thankyouverymuch.  Except for the blight on the tomato plants that’s pissing me off royally.  You spend all that time growing the little buggers from seed, and when you take them out into the real world crap attacks them!

I mean, they had a nice environmentally stable greenhouse where they received the right amount of water, sun and warmth.  Grow them big and strong and then gently plant them in their new home and reality hits, which this year was an early Spring (YAY) followed by nice temperature to heat their little root systems (which helps them grow nice and strong) and then BAM!  Hit them with unending amounts of rain that do not give them enough time to dry out which in turn causes the stupid fungus that is chipping away at them every so slowly and painfully.

WAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

*sniff*

So I mixed together an organic spray that I’m hoping (crosses fingers and toes and walks funny) will be their salvation.  If not, well, I guess I’m gonna have to make a deal with the manager at the farm for a butt ton of tomatoes that I can can.  (Can can….get it?… hehehe…)  Ahem, sorry.

In other garden news, everything else seems to be doing fantabuloso.  I canned my first pint of pickles over the weekend (in a normal season that would happen in August).  Wowzers.

Oh, and I think the toad is AWOL.  Haven’t seen hide nor hair of him for a few days.

Gonna miss the little guy.  Yeah, yeah, I know, I was gonna evict him, but he kinda grew on me.  Kept me company when I was weeding.

Now I’m left with the garden gnome but he’s not really much of a conversationalist.

 

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